"Perhaps it didn't appear to require much. A little luck from the officials. A little nick of the puck at a key moment. A favorable bounce in the final minute.

But add it up, and it spelled out the Avalanche's 2-1 victory over the Dallas Stars on Saturday.

"You have to be desperate; you have to throw your body in front of shots and do whatever it takes," Avs goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere? said. "That's what we did."

Giguere's two key kick saves, center Paul Stastny's multipoint game and some late 6-on-4 penalty killing paced Colorado as it leapfrogged past the Stars in the Western Conference standings.

"We had some guys out there really digging in on the penalty kill, really battling," Avs coach Joe Sacco said. "It was a good sign."

Stastny assisted on David Jones' first-period goal and broke a 1-1 tie with 9:25 remaining in regulation by slightly changing the course of Erik Johnson's power-play blast from the point. While the Avs played well, both goals could be considered fortunate. Jones, a healthy scratch in Thursday's 3-2 overtime loss at Nashville, scored on a play that probably should have been whistled dead. And Stastny's late stickwork may have only slightly screened Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen, who couldn't prevent the puck from zipping through his legs before he dropped into the butterfly position.

"Paulie said he got it and he's not going to lie," Johnson said half-jokingly of his shot that didn't appear to get touched. "If we get the 'W,' I don't care."

Colorado withstood a 6-on-4 disadvantage for the final 1:18, after Daniel Winnik was assessed a high-sticking minor and Lehtonen was pulled for a sixth attacker. With less than 20 seconds remaining, TJ Galiardi and a bouncing puck broke up Michael Ryder?'s empty-net rebound bid after Giguere was sprawled on the ice atop the goalmouth."